TEDx Arcadia University

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Bella Selekman is a junior at Council Rock South High School in Bucks County, PA. She takes pride in her involvement in Youth 4 Unity, a student-led social justice organization. She is Youth 4 Unity’s Director of Volunteers, an editor for the organization’s publications, and in charge of the YouthFour Unity Facebook account. Outside of Youth 4 Unity, she is extremely dedicated to her education. In her free time, she can be found studying, watching Star Wars, and advocating for equality.

Talk topics: How Gen Z can become involved in politics and social justice, how young people can contribute to their community, how to start their own organization, the ups and downs of starting an organization, and how to be successful. Also, the impact of being an activist, the reactions regarding one’s social views, and whether small organizations can actually invoke change.

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Sarah Zhang is a senior at Central Bucks East, and the director of web development, administration, & operations for Youth 4 Unity. She has been heavily involved in activism ever since she led her middle school's walkout after the Parkland shooting in 2018. Outside of Y4U, Sarah runs the student-led newspaper The Gen Z Daily on Instagram, is social media director of Diversify our Narrative CBSD, runs her school's art therapy club, and volunteers at a Woman's Place, the Doylestown Hospital, and the Michener Art Museum.

Talk topics: How Gen Z can become involved in politics and social justice, how young people can contribute to their community, how to start their own organization, the ups and downs of starting an organization, and how to be successful. Also, the impact of being an activist, the reactions regarding one’s social views, and whether small organizations can actually invoke change.

Follow Sarah on Instagram

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Brian Antono, MD, MPH is a family physician in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke University. He spends his days seeing patients of all ages, teaching students and residents, and developing a health equity curriculum. He attended medical school at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and completed his Master of Public Health degree at the UNC Gillings School's Public Health Leadership Program. After fulfilling his family medicine training at the Mountain Area Health Education Center Family Medicine Residency Program, he became the 2019-2020 Robert L. Phillips, Jr. Health Policy Fellow at the Georgetown School of Medicine & the Robert Graham Center in Washington, DC. His interests also include access to care for underserved populations and primary care workforce and training.

He lives in Durham, NC, and enjoys exploring new hiking trails, experimenting with new cooking recipes, and keeping his collection of house plants healthy and happy.

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Victoria graduated from Rowan University in 2020 with a Psychology major and a Neuroscience minor, with a concentration in the Physician Assistant field. Overall, her research interests focus primarily on the interplay between mental and physical health. Another area Victoria is specifically interested in is alternatives to prescribed medications (such as yoga and meditation) as a source of treatment for illnesses. She wishes to learn about these techniques to later utilize in her intended career field. She also helps her mother manage Island Creamery. Raised on the beaches of South Jersey, Victoria spends her free time at the beach, hiking, with loved ones, and doing a whole lot of studying preparing for Physician Assistant School.

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Dr. Breea Willingham is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Willingham’s research examines the intersections of race, gender, higher education, and the criminal injustice system. She is particularly interested in examining Black women’s experiences with higher education in prison and amplifying the voices of Black women impacted by the injustice system.

Influenced by her experiences as a sister and aunt of two men serving life sentences, Dr. Willingham’s research also focuses on the societal ramifications of mass incarceration, especially its impact on families. She has presented her research at academic conferences nationally and internationally, and given lectures at universities in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Willingham is a co-founder of the Jamii Sisterhood, an organization that offers a safe and innovative space for Black women in higher education in prison, and the Managing Editor of the new Journal for Higher Education in Prison, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes solely on the topics and issues in higher education in prison. She is writing a book about higher education in women’s prisons. Her anthology titled Punishment and Society is available from Cognella Academic Publishers.

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Rabbi Michael Shevack is a leader in inter-religious dialogue. The author/co-author of 5 books, his latest The Six Fix. Spiritual Healthcare for a Stronger America, which has already appeared on NewsMax, to critical acclaim.

Shevack has taught spirituality and comparative religion at the State University of New York (Stony Brook), and Business Spirituality, at the Iacocca Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at Lehigh University. He has had a column on Business Spirituality in Success Magazine. Shevack is currently Social Responsibility Officer for the Patton Foundation, founded by Helen Ayer Patton, the granddaughter of General George S. Patton.

Prior to his ordination, he was an advertising creative director and is best known for writing Gillette. The Best a Man can Get, a campaign still running in 120 countries around the world.

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Trapeta B. Mayson is the 2020-2021 Philadelphia Poet Laureate. She is a recipient of a Pew Fellowship in Literature, Leeway Transformation Award, Leeway Art and Change Grant and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grants. Her work was also nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize. Mayson is a Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow and a 2019 Aspen Words Emerging Writers Fellow with the Aspen Institute. She is the author of She Was Once Herself and Mocha Melodies. Mayson also released two music and poetry projects, SCAT and This Is How We Get Through, in collaboration with internationally acclaimed jazz guitarist, Monnette Sudler. Her other publications include submissions in The American Poetry Review, Epiphany Literary Journal, Aesthetica Magazine, Margie: The American Journal of Poetry among others. Mayson is a native of Liberia. She is a graduate of Temple University, Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and Villanova University School of Business. Currently working in the social services field, Mayson is a member of several local organizations where she uses the arts to mobilize, build community and create change.

Learn more on Mayson's Website

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Ebony Stewart is an international touring poet and performance artist. Her work speaks to the black experience, with emphasis on gender, sexuality, womanhood, and race, with the hopes to be relatable, remove shame, heal minds, encourage dialogue, and inspire folks in marginalized communities. As one of the most decorated poets in Texas, Ebony is a respected coach & mentor, one of the top touring poets in the country, and a Woman of the World Poetry Slam Champion. The Sexual Health activist and former Sex Educator is also pursuing a license as a Sex Therapist.

As a playwright, Ebony’s one-woman shows, Hunger and Ocean have received B. Iden Payne Awards & the David Mark Cohen New Play Award. She is the author of Love Letters to Balled Fists and Home.Girl.Hood. Her work has been featured in For Harriet, AfroPunk, Teen Vogue, and The Texas Observer. The only poet to perform at the 2018 Seattle Pride Festival before 200,000 people, was Ebony Stewart.

She is, #thestoryoftheblackgirlwinning
 

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Pat McLean-Smith, is a published poet and teaching artist. She has facilitated workshops, lectures, and performances for numerous organizations, educational institutions, and transitional homes, throughout Philadelphia and surrounding areas. She is a published poet and teaching artist. She is the author of two books of poetry, “Poetry Pulls Pain,” and "Healing Her Hurts,” a collection of short stories and poetry. As well as “REGGIE RASCAL,” a children’s book which she both wrote and illustrated.

She is the recipient of several awards, including 1st place for the Sonia Sanchez/Audre Lorde Poetry Competition, 2nd place for Judith Stark Creative Writing Competition at Community College of Philadelphia, the 2005, 2012, and 2020 Art and Change Award, and the 2006 Transformation Award from the Leeway Foundation.

For more info visit her website

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M. Nzadi Keita is a writer, teacher, and scholar. Brief Evidence of Heaven, her poetry collection, sheds light on Anna Murray Douglass, Frederick Douglass’s first wife. Her work has earned awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Poetry, and appeared in numerous publications. Keita is an associate professor of creative writing, American literature, and Africana Studies at Ursinus College.